Local company gives 7-year-old ‘helping hand'

3D printing company wants to help boy who lost 3 fingers

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The family of a local boy is hoping that new technology making waves in the River City will give him a hand, literally.

Ben Bowersox is your typical, tech-savvy 7-year-old who knows his way around some video games and has the hand-eye coordination to prove it.

If you were to take a closer look at those hands, though, you'd see they tell a story about his biggest challenge yet.

"It's been a long, yeah, tough journey," his father, Dr. Steve Bowersox, said.

Two years ago, after losing his mother, Ben lost some of his fingers in the door of a hangar at Craig Airfield.



"He got caught in a door," Bowersox said. "He broke his arm in six places and amputated his fingers. He was life-flighted to the hospital where he spent 58 days in intensive care up there."

Ben Bowersox almost died four times while getting treatment at Duke Children's Hospital in North Carolina. Once to loss of blood, then getting an infection that was once thought to be incurable, and even a toxic drug interaction with the medication he was taking. Miraculously though Ben survived and has been recovering ever since.

Ben can do a whole lot of things but still has some issues with his hands.

"[I'm] trying to get this finger to bend and make a fist," he said.

That's why his father is looking for ways to give him a helping hand. Together they've explored 3-D printing and the developing technology that's exploding with possibilities.

"A traditional prosthetic could run between $30,000 and $100,000, whereas this (3-D printed hand) is $5 to $10," Dr. Steve Bowersox said.

That's where the entrepreneurs at Forge 3-D Printing come in. 

Bryce Pfanenstiel and Adam Dukes started their downtown Jacksonville company from scratch a few years ago. They got some of their first funding from the One Spark festival and now have a long list of clients.

"Essentially it is laying down a layer of powder and then glue in each cross-section of all your parts together," explained co-founder Dukes.

Their form of "retail 3-D printing," where anyone can come in with a project or a simple idea, is one of the first of its kind in the country.

They're working to make a prosthetic hand for Ben. The prototype isn't perfect yet, they're still trying to get it to fit right. But the future is bright.

"Prosthetics, specifically for younger people, are great," Pfanenstiel said, "because you can actually print it and then re-create another one as they grow, just make a little bit bigger."

They've already done a lot of cool things inside Forge's Bay Street studio. Companies worldwide are taking notice and asking to collaborate.

Forge intern Josh Weinberger recently started a side project called "3-D Printed Evidence," which local lawyers have already started to use in trial.

"For the skull you could show fractures. You could show the depth of the wound, if it was a stab wound per se. You could say if it was a match with a particular weapon or not," Weinberger explained.

"A picture is worth 1,000 words, then imagine?" Pfanenstiel said. "Keep going."

Meanwhile, Ben said he's just fine. He can still ride a bike, pick things up and play with his twin sister. Ben's back in school, where he's doing well, and recently he was even in a play at his church, First Baptist Church in downtown Jacksonville.

But his father knows that someday he'll want to do a little more. He's confident someday 3-D printers will hold the key.

To learn more about Forge 3-D Printing Studio, visit www.forgejax.com or call 904-274-1714.
 

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